Fined for Sharing Client Details on WhatsApp

Fined for Sharing Client Details on WhatsApp.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today confirmed a £37,198 fine on a former investment banker who released sensitive client information to a third party via WhatsApp.

If you do not know WhatsApp is, it is an instant messaging service like a text, but as you get charged for texts and even more for international texts, you can send unlimited texts literally all over the World to friends, colleagues and clients, literally for free.

On a number of occasions between 24 January and 16 May 2016, the former banker shared information with both a personal acquaintance and a friend, who was also a client of the firm.  In one instance that banker shared client confidential information with his friend, who was also a client of the firm, that information was about a competitor.

The banker used the instant messaging application WhatsApp to share this information and it has been much documented in the area of politics, the fact that WhatsApp messages are encrypted meaning that that are literally ‘off the record’ and not traceable.

Comment

Data protection is paramount for any finance firm.  You cannot simply just pass on information to third parties about clients without expecting to suffer the confidences.